Anyone familiar with the world of social media knows that it’s an ever-changing, constantly evolving medium – one that can be difficult to keep up with, even for PR Pros and others who work in the space daily. In the past few days alone, there have been some major announcements that could (once again) revolutionize the way brands use social media:
1. Twitter starts to function more like Facebook...at least for brands with big bucks.
Beginning February 1, major brands on Twitter – we’re talking NBC News, Volkswagen, Huffington Post – began unveiling snazzier, Facebook-esque brand profiles with extra design options and capabilities. The catch? It’s currently only being offered to “advertising partners [reportedly those spending at least $25,000] as well as other select partners, charities, media organizations, and individuals.”
2. Facebook timeline coming for brand pages
We’ve already seen the timeline feature in all its controversial glory on personal profile pages, but soon enough brand pages will have access to the same features. If you manage a brand page, it’s time to start thinking about how this change could impact your Facebook strategy (and start brainstorming creative ideas for that cover photo!). And by the way, if you’re one of the holdouts that hasn’t transitioned their personal profile page to the timeline setting yet, be warned that you’ll be forced over within the next few weeks.
3. Open Graphs become more readily available on Facebook
You’re probably already familiar with some Open Graph applications – those that allow users to share what they’re reading (through Yahoo News and other services) or listening to (through apps like Spotify) have already been popping up in Facebook newsfeeds for quite a while. But now, Open Graphs is allowing developers the freedom to integrate customized plugins with descriptive buttons like “want,” “buy,” “ate,” “visited,” and so much more. According to Boston.com, the new applications “let users share everything from photos of what they cooked for dinner, to details on what they are wearing, to what concert they scored tickets to.”